Video games and the like have become increasingly popular and sophisticated in recent years. Improvements in computer and video technology and computer graphics have made video games faster, more challenging, more variable, and more realistic. At the same time, improvements in computer technology have also made video game hardware smaller and less power-consuming. The result has been the miniaturization of high quality video game devices and the introduction of a wide variety of portable gaming devices.
While improvements in computer technology have made video game devices smaller and more powerful, some limitations still generally apply, particularly with respect to the video images associated with these games. High quality, high-resolution video is particularly desirable in video games to provide a realistic experience. However, high quality graphics images require substantial computing power and speed, and high quality displays.
In recent years the computing power required for high quality video has become less expensive, smaller in size, and with lower power requirements. However, the challenge of providing high quality video images in portable devices has not been so easily solved. High resolution graphics are best viewed on a large display, but large displays are not practical to carry around, because of their size and weight. Consequently, portable gaming devices generally use a relatively small liquid crystal display (LCD) that provides far less resolution. While higher resolution displays could be used for the small units, resolution significantly higher than industry standard is significantly more expensive, and in a small display the apparent improvement in image quality can be minimal.